


Better

by lionessvalenti



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Conversations, Gen, Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 17:44:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1122630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/pseuds/lionessvalenti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one had to tell Isaac that Derek was back in town, and he wasn't surprised to see Derek waiting for him after school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kissoffools](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kissoffools/gifts).



Isaac knew when Derek came back to Beacon Hills. No one called him or texted. No one had said a word to him, but he knew. He would know Derek's scent anywhere, and he could smell it in the air. It was different now that Derek was a beta, but still unmistakable.

That was why he wasn't surprised to see Derek's car in the school parking lot, just beyond the buses. He walked over and leaned into the open window on the passenger side.

"I don't have to get in here if I don't want to," he said.

Derek pulled off his sunglasses and tossed them on the dashboard. His eyes were tired and the scruff along his chin looked thicker and more unkempt than Isaac had remembered it. "I know. I can only ask. Do me the honor?"

Isaac stood up straighter and looked around, like maybe someone else could make the decision, but there was no one who do that for him. He pulled open the door and sank into the deep bucket seat, overcome with the scent of leather and Derek. He turned his face to the window and squinted into the sun. "I thought you'd see Scott first."

"This isn't business," Derek said and he started the car.

"What is it?" Isaac asked as they pulled out of the parking lot.

Derek was quiet for a few moments, maybe concentrating on driving, but maybe he didn't know what to say. "I just wanted to see how you were doing. I know it might not seem like it, Isaac, but I do care about you."

"It doesn't matter now, we're the same. We're both betas and Scott is my alpha."

"I know, and that's good." Derek swallowed loudly as he made a sharp right turn through a yellow light. He pulled into the an empty parking lot of a little grocery store that had been out of business for as long as Isaac could remember.

"What are you doing here, Derek? What could possibly be left for you in Beacon Hills?"

"It's still my home. And even though I'm a beta now and you have a new alpha, you're still... mine. We're still connected."

Isaac shook his head. "No, no, we're not." It was a lie as he said it, but that wasn't the point. Hearing Derek say that, he suddenly didn't want anything to do with him. "I followed you and Erica died, and Boyd died and it took all of that for you to realize that maybe Cora shouldn't die. I thought that you knew what you were doing because you were our alpha, but you ruined everything."

"I know," Derek mumbled, looking down at this hands.

"Why couldn't you just have been _better_?" Isaac asked. He knew how desperate he sounded. "Why did you make us if you were just going to let them die? I never thought I would have been the last one standing. They were so strong and... it was like I'd lost a limb, and you -- you didn't deserve it. The power, the spark, none of it. You were too fucking _broken_ to be an alpha."

Derek's jaw was tight as he nodded curtly.

"Are you going to say anything? Aren't you going to defend yourself?"

"From what?" Derek asked. He sounded like he wanted to shout, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it, his voice labored and his word just a beat too slow. "Everything you're saying is right, and... I don't have any right to you. I lost it long before I lost being an alpha. I'm glad you have Scott now. He's the alpha you deserve."

Tears welled up in Isaac's eyes and he wasn't even sure why. He blinked them away, refusing to cry in front Derek. "Then why are we here?"

Derek reached up and placed a hand in Isaac's hair. Isaac felt like he should jerk away or protest, but there was still a part of him, a part he'd tried to ignore the second he'd caught Derek's scent in the air, that still wanted Derek to love him. After everything, he wanted to be a werewolf that Derek could be proud of, even after Derek couldn't do that himself.

"I just wanted to see you," Derek said huskily. He let his hand fall to Isaac's shoulder and he smiled with one half of his mouth. "I can drive you back to school or -- where are you staying?"

"I've been staying with Scott," Isaac replied. "His mom's nice."

Derek pulled his hand away and didn't say anything else. He just started up the car.

"Hey, Derek?"

"Yeah?" Derek picked his sunglasses up off the dash and slipped them on. He put the car in reverse and backed out of the suggestion of a parking space, the paint on the blacktop long worn away from the elements.

"I don't hate you. I blame you and I wish everything could have been different, but I don't hate you. I know you just wanted you own pack. A family. And I can understand that because I wanted a family too. That's what I thought it was going to be, and it never was."

Isaac had more to say, but there weren't enough words to say it. He had that family now in Scott and Allison, in Stiles and Lydia, and the twins. They were a weird little pack, but they were the pack he needed. There wasn't any sense rubbing salt into Derek's wounds.

Derek was quiet as he pulled the car into traffic. "I wish I could have been better. All of you deserved it."

Isaac nodded, but he didn't speak, and they rode in silence until Derek pulled into the McCall's driveway. Isaac got out of the car and then leaned into the open window.

"You want to stay for dinner?"

That got a laugh out of Derek, and a brief smile, and it was brilliant for a flash before it disappeared. "No, I don't think so. I'll see you around, Isaac."

"Yeah." Isaac was about to step away, but he hesitated. "You were right about thing. We're still connected. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you, and I will always owe you that."

Derek shook his head. "You don't owe me anything. I owe you."

Isaac stepped away from the car and watched as Derek backed out and drove away. As he turned a corner, Isaac's cell phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out. Scott. Probably wondering where he was. Isaac smiled and answered it.

"Guess who's back in town."


End file.
